Danganronpa: Painful Truth

Party Time

I left my room and navigated the elaborate basement to the war room, feeling somewhat excited. For the past week, I'd done little other than eat, sleep, and learn all I could from Kyoko. She was an extremely talented detective, and working with her had been immensely satisfying. From what I could remember, even my uncle could stand to learn from her.

Even though I was enjoying the process of improving my talent, I was glad to finally have a reason to take a break and relax. Even if I'd had no interest in the party, Kyoko and her husband were going, so the training would be put on hold regardless. However, I found myself excited to be there. It would be a good way to get to know this new group of teens and their parents who were generously letting us stay with them.

The war room was almost unrecognizable from how it had looked when we'd first arrived. All of their meeting tables and chairs had been pushed up against the walls and filled with various platters of food, bowls of snacks, and bottled sodas. A sloppily painted banner that read 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOSS' in purple fabric paint had been hung across the back wall, above the projector screen they used for visual aides. Shinji had brought a gaming system and connected it to the projector, and was now playing a fighting game with his mother and father. Sonia was winning by a landslide.

Shinji wasn't the only member of DICE to have brought their parents. Ryu was sitting at one of the tables with his mother Akane, inhaling ridiculous amounts of food while his father, Nekomaru, reminded them to mind their digestion and chew thoroughly. Ibuki and Kazuichi were hanging out in the corner, sitting on the floor, while Kiki danced around them and bragged to whoever would listen about how she had gotten them back together. Yoshi and his father Hiro were sitting with Tenko. All three were listening with wide eyes while Himiko gave them an elaborate lecture on magical theory. She seemed to be making some of it up on the spot, but her audience didn't seem to mind. Fuyuhiko, Peko, and Natsumi were sitting near one of the tables, relaxing and observing the others. The adults had champagne while Natsumi sipped from a goblet of orange soda.

Finally, I spotted at least one adult I had spoken to longer than an introduction. Kyoko and Makoto were chatting with Komaru and Touko, Yuri's parents. I had briefly met them as well, although Touko's facial expression was vastly different than it had been during our meeting. I approached the group, trying to be confident in the social environment.

Kyoko smiled at me as I joined them. "It's good to see you, Shuichi. I'm glad you could make it. You've worked hard this week."

"Ah, th-thank you!" I replied, feeling slightly embarrassed. During our training, Kyoko had directed me to study past cases and practice my observation skills in controlled environments. She had mentioned that we may move on to actual fieldwork soon, but she had warned me that it would be dangerous.

"Oh right! You and Kyoko sure have been busy!" Makoto nodded encouragingly. "I'm glad you can keep honing your talent while you're here! Especially since Ultimates are so hard to find these days..." he frowned sadly.

Meanwhile, Komaru was giving her partner a strained expression. "Okay, but, can you remind Touko that she promised to come to this party with me?"

"Um, actually, Miss Morose only said we would be here. She never once said who'd be fronting~!" The woman who didn't seem to be Touko after all snickered and stuck out her long tongue. "And you should know by now that she haaaaates parties! She's very happy up there in the ol' noggin, sulking like usual!" She tapped her temple and giggled wildly.

Komaru sighed. She turned to me, noting my confused expression. "This is Jill, I don't think you've met. She's the agent of chaos that lives in my girlfriend's head."

"Excuse me, how do you know she's not an agent of boring that lives in my head?" Jill argued. "Be grateful Koko, I only brought one pair of scissors today! Get on your knees and thank me!" she demanded suddenly.